The Road to Sofia by GM Magesh and GM Arun

The ash cloud drama that unfolded over World Champion Vishy Anand's journey to Sofia has only hyped up the enthusiasm of chess fans all over the world. Will this affect Anand negatively? or will he breeze through this just like the several other obstacles he has faced in his career? We will have to wait and see. With a one day postponement of the schedule, we have just three days before the start of this entertaining match. These two chess giants are very well-known for their opening preparation and today we can take a look at their games from their previous matches that have brought them here. As a result we will be analyzing two different openings today.

Let us begin with a game from the World Championship match between Anand and Kramnik in Bonn. In this game Anand dealt the most important mental blow to his opponent with his sharp opening choice and fantastic depth in preparation. The relatively less popular move (14...Bb7) that Anand chose in the Semi Slav Meran variation really clinched the issue for him.

This game pretty much created a domino effect on Kramnik and his team leaving him without much of a chance for the title. If I were Topalov, I would watch out for the early blows from Anand, but again Topalov himself is no less of a beast. Our second game is from the Topalov – Kamsky World Chess Challenge match last year. Though this Challenge match had a lot more ups and downs than the Bonn match, it still provided the fans with some entertaining and hard fought chess.

Topalov took the lead for the second time in the match with this win and went on to win the match. A simple opening choice, but a persistent approach to the game gave Topalov this much needed win.

Hopefully our readers have warmed up with these games, just sit tight and get ready for the real action. We are looking forward to this much awaited championship and in the next two weeks their games are going to give plenty for us to write about in our section.